


When The Great Tire

by FamousSmuggler



Series: Requests and Oneshots [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Depression, Fluff, Fontcest or brotherly love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Read it however you feel its appropriate, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 11:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8011291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FamousSmuggler/pseuds/FamousSmuggler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Optimism is struck by the deadly Pessimist Ray</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Great Tire

**Author's Note:**

> Just a venty oneshot

He was tired, not the “just go get some sleep” kind of tired. No this was his soul...his soul felt tired. Papyrus rose a hand to where his soul barely thrummed in his chest and sighed. The Great Papyrus should not feel this down and yet he found himself dragging his feet through the snow at a snail's pace toward home. And that realization made him stop all together.

It wasn't the Papyrus didn't WANT to go home. He truly and honestly did, but home meant one of two things: be alone and deal with these horrible thoughts by himself or put on yet another happy face for his brother and pretend that he was captain optimism. Gloved hand wrung together anxiously. If he was honest, he was scared of these thoughts and the downward spiral they were steadily sending him down but he couldn't find it in himself to bring it up to Sans. 

No, he couldn't,wouldn't, do that to his brother. He loved him too much to force him to watch his only light in the world get snuffed out. The Great Papyrus would continue to pretend so long as it kept that smile on his brother’s face, no matter how fearful he was. Another soft sigh escaped between Papyrus’ teeth before he continued his slightly faster paced trek home.

“Sans! Brother are you home?” Papyrus called out, waiting a few moments for a response. When none came a mixture of relief and dread coiled in his bones. Neatly stacking his boots off to the side of the front door, Papyrus hurried into his room and closed the door. Bones scraped against his battle body in a flurry to remove the suddenly suffocating accessory from himself. 

The suffocating feeling did not go away once the battle body clinked to the floor, if anything Papyrus felt like it had gotten worse! The darkness in his room expanded out to him, shrinking his surrounds to the point of almost non-existence. Sweat beaded across his brow as his arms enclosed around him in a feeble attempt to protect himself from the agonizing feeling of disappointment and self doubt that were consuming him.

“I'm home, Paps!” The sound of his brother’s voice immediately pushed the feelings into overdrive, forcing the limber skeleton to the floor with a yelp. “Paps?!” Sans was at his side in an instant and Papyrus could do nothing but curl into himself to hide the pitiful tears that were rolling down his cheeks.

“S-sans! You know I h-hate it when you just teleport around!” Papyrus chided half-heartedly trying to keep his hiccuping to a minimum. Though he had his body turned from him, Papyrus could feel the worried scowl boring into his side.

“Heh, well tibia honest bro, I didn't really expect to find ya like...well this.” Sans shuffled a little closer to his brother before continuing, “Paps I don't see any dogs around so mind telling me what's eatin ya?” He needed to react, he needed to act annoyed. Why couldn't he do something as simple as that?! He was the “Great Papyrus” wasn't he

...wasn't he?

“I-I’m sorry, Sans. I just am feeling a bit under the weather it seems.” It wasn't a full lie but enough of one for Papyrus to feel guilty wrap around his soul. 

Sans scrunched his features and spat out his words, “Bullshit.” Papyrus couldn't say he was surprised. All the younger one's nagging aside, he knew his brother was really receptive and observant. “Don’t lie to get, Paps. What's wrong?” Papyrus tightened the ball he had curled himself into. Sans pressed on with a bit more force in his voice but still Papyrus refused to elaborate.

“I would very much like to get some rest,” Papyrus half lied “I’m so sorry that I won't be cooking my artisan spaghetti for you brother.” Sans hummed in frustration at Papyrus’ words. He could tell his brother was lying to him but didn't know how to pull the truth out. Papyrus might not have been gifted with the ability to hide his feelings well but Sans too lacked to ability to pry out information. So, he did what he did best.

He gave up. 

“Alright bro, you get some sleep.” The older sighed, bending down a little to clink his teeth to the top of Papyrus’ head “If you need me for anything, seriously anything, I'll be in my room.” Sans halted at the door, hoping that Papyrus would call back to him even if for just a hug or a bedtime story but he never did. So, with a painful feeling of helplessness that was all too familiar, the short skeleton scooted himself out of his you get brother’s room and desperately tried to ignore the orange droplets he saw falling from Papyrus’ sockets.

~~~~

Sans had hoped that whatever bug had bitten Papyrus really was just a cold or would pass within the next few days if he gave the skeleton the space he so meekly asked for. But it was going on a week now and not only was Sans noticing the increasingly slower pace his brother was moving at, but others were as well.

Everything he was doing was just no Papyrus. His patrols were slow with little to no interaction with the monsters that he normally sat and chatted with before realizing he was slacking off and running to catch up on the lost time. His puzzles were haphazardly recalibrated, resulting in most of them not even functioning the way they should have anymore. The worst of it all was Papyrus hadn't tried to cook through the entire week. Every day Sans would wake up and return to an eerily quiet home that if he didn't see the red boots by the door every time he would assume he lived in alone.

Stars, he missed his brother. He missed how loud and overly confident he was. He missed how he would chide Sans for being lazy or making stupid jokes that the older knew he secretly found at least a little amusing.

Sans slumped his body against Papyrus’ door, “Is this how you felt when I wouldn't open up to you bro?” Sans could hear sheets ruffling quickly behind the door accompanied by soft whimpers and words just a little too quiet for him to fully understand. He took the knob lightly in his hand and turned it as quietly as he could, poking his head in to ensure his brother was okay.

“Pap...y...rus?” The sight before him made Sans actually tremble with fear. Papyrus laid curled in his bed, bony digits digging deeply into his skull as his body tossed and turned with a fit. Deep orange wisps of magic free flowed from his right eye while others danced off his bones like a fire. Sans knew nightmares when he saw them.

“No..please don't. I’m sorry...I’ll do better.” Papyrus mumbled in his sleep, each word causing the fire like magic to slap against his bones painfully. 

Sans immediately went to his brother’s side “Paps, c’mon you're okay. It's me, Paps. It's Sans.” As much as he wished he could just hug his brother Sans knew that wouldn't be a good idea. There was no telling what Papyrus was seeing, “C’mon Paps, I need you to calm down okay? You're okay, Papyrus.” The words seemed to pull the younger skeleton away from his terror until his barely open sockets landed on Sans and he screamed bloody murder. 

Papyrus’ magic reacted, violently lashing out on every direction with blue and white constructs. Sans panicked and teleported out of the room just before he was hit by any of the wild attacks. He waited until the magic died away before even approaching the room again.

“S-sans?” Papyrus whimpered softly “Brother? P-please say something.” The magic bones were still sticking out of the walls and floor, but Sans wasted no time hurrying to his brother’s side. Orange tears immediately pooled at the corner of Papyrus’ eyes, his brother was okay. He didn't hurt him! Long arms pulled Sans into the bed in a bone crushing hug, Papyrus’ face buried into Sans’ jacket as he sobbed. Sans wrapped his arms tightly around his brother and spoke soft, soothing words against the side of Papyrus’ skull. 

“Please don't leave me…”

Sans bristled at the words, “What?”

Papyrus whimpered, hugging Sans tighter, “I...I know I am not as great as I like to think, but…” the younger couldn't get the rest of his words out and began to loudly sob into Sans’ jacket again.

“Paps, what are you talking about? Why would I leave you and you know you're too great and cool Paps.” Sans stroked his brother's head gently “C’mon bro, where's all this coming from? Ya gotta talk to me.” Papyrus whimpered again but pulled himself away from Sans’ warm embrace to try and articulate the fear that had been bubbling up in his soul these past few weeks.

“It's just...I've been feeling not so great lately.” he answered lamely, earning him deadpan look from Sans that told him he was definitely going to have to go into greater detail so he sighed and continued, “I just don't feel like I accomplish anything. I boast about how great I am but I'm still just a sentry, my cooking is subpar at best and I just…” Papyrus removed his arms from Sans to wrap them around himself “I feel like I'm a disappointment. Not just to you but to Undyne and the town, and worst of all...myself.”

Sans rested a hand against Papyrus’ cheek, his thumb gently wiping away the tears that had fallen.

“Papyrus, I would never be disappointed in you and I'm sure the others aren't either.” Sans said as calmly as he could “You're everyone's light Paps, you keep us all positive when we just want to give up and fall down.” 

“But...what happens when...what happens when I want to fall down?” Sans grabbed hold of Papyrus’ hands, pulling them gently to his chest so his brother could feel the gentle hum of his soul. Papyrus gave him a sad but soft smile. The warmth from Sans’ soul pushing away the darkness that clouded his mind.

“Nobody is perfect Paps. You're allowed to let things affect you, ya know? You don't gotta be Captain Optimism a hundred percent of the time.” Sans smiled and returned a hand to Papyrus’ cheek “But please Paps, never hide stuff like this from me. This last week scared the shit outta me. I was always scared that I would come home and you would be...just whenever you feel like this, talk. Okay?”

Papyrus muzzled into Sans’ hand and nodded slowly. As much as he wished them gone, the pep talk only barely pushed the dark thoughts far enough to be a nagging noise in the back of his skull. But Sans had tried and that alone filled Papyrus’ soul with warmth and love. The younger knew the feelings weren’t going to just magically disappear because his brother said a few kind words, but feeling Sans’ soul thum with love and appreciation toward him made the feelings ebb away even if it was only a little bit.

Sans leaned his head against Papyrus’ shoulder, his hands sliding slowly down until the rested limply at his sides. Believing it to be a hug at first, Papyrus wrapped his arms around him only to be greeted by the soft snores of his now sleeping brother. It brought a smile,a real one, to his for the first time in weeks.

“Nyeh heh heh, good night Sans.” The taller skeleton smiled, laying Sans down gently before joining him. Sans was right, he would be okay. No, better than okay. He would be great, just like he knew he could be.


End file.
